Saturday, 22 March 2014

Spy Game

Amber felt stones and flint
digging through her jeans and into her knees.

Her hair was slick with sweat; she
could smell the rancid scent of her body beneath her clothes. She trembled; her
head a fog of disjointed memories. Her vision was blurred. Figures loomed
around her. Voices blared through bad static.

Where was she? How had this
happened? She could taste blood in her mouth, her hands were numb from the
plastic bindings that tied them. She tried to remember where this had all begun...
it had started with icecream... and something... something...

She had been scared.

But even that feeling was so
buried beneath weariness and pain that it no longer seemed to matter.

In the distance she heard a
jumble of click-clack noises. Her heart sped up, and she groped her mind for
clarity.

A cacophony of shots.

Her shoulder exploded with white
heat. Her body jerked back. Warmth spread through her and she welcomed it.

She felt herself hit the ground
in a distracted way. The solidness beneath her head was comforting. She could
fall no further.

There was a dizzying brightness
above her. The warmth was leaving. Seeping out onto the gravel. She would have
smiled, but her mouth could no longer do that. So she closed her eyes and drew
in the blackness and was thankful for peace.

It had
started with icecream. Josie sitting on the wall outside the cafe kicking her
heels against the peeling paintwork. She was wearing a dark hoody, combat
trousers, and grey plimsolls. Her bronze hair was pulled back into a high
ponytail, strands straggling down her face like snakes. Her lipstick was
smeared; a plummy streak across her cheek mingled with chocolate sauce.

‘Why do we
always meet here?’ she grumbled. ‘We’re too old to be seen hanging out outside
the icecream shop.’

‘You don’t
seem to mind that much,’ Amber muttered. She handed Josie a napkin. ‘You eat
like a baby.’

Josie
scowled at her as she took the cloth. ‘I’m trying to blend in,’ she said, ‘we’d look even more stupid if we just sat
here not eating icecream.’

Amber said
nothing. She dug her hands into her pockets and scanned the street. A few
government officials stalked the pavements, their rifles slung over their
shoulders, but mostly it was empty. Shops were boarded up, old posters and
fliers fluttering in the slight breeze that carried in from the slate coloured
sea. Amber felt the hem of her pleated skirt lifting slightly and she flattened
it back down over the jeans.

The iceceam
shop was the only place still open. Dusk was closing in and there were a few
kids loitering in the neon lit cafe. She glanced back at Josie who was biting
her nails and looking grumpy. The napkin was on the ground beneath her feet,
balled up and scratching along the pavement with the breeze.

‘He’s not
coming,’ Amber said, ‘again.’

Josie
rolled her eyes and jumped down from the wall.

‘Of course
not,’ she said, keeping her voice low, ‘did you really expect him? It’s been
days since he last made contact. He’s been caught.’

Amber felt
a lump wedge itself in her throat. She swallowed it down and swiped at her
fringe.

‘He said
he’d always come,’ she whispered.

Josie took
her arm and began tugging her away, leading her down the high street past the
guards. She was chattering, her voice high and girly. Talking about boys, about
clothes, about make up.

They turned
off into a smaller alley, alone.

‘He can’t,’
Josie said, mid sentence, dropping her voice, ‘not if they’ve got him. You know
he can’t. He’ll hardly have a choice, will he? They won’t be offering him time
out or breaks.’

‘And you
know what?’ Josie halted them at the exit to the alley, ‘if he’s caught they’ll
be after us next. It won’t take them long to get information out of him. Three
days already. Think about it. Three days.’

They stared
at each other for a moment. Josie’s eyes were blanked by the glaring brightness
of the streetlight as it flickered on. A guard paused at the entrance to the
alley and turned to look at them.

Josie
plastered a wide smile onto her face and pulled Amber out into the open.

‘So I said,
what’s the point in buying go-go skirts at this time of year, it’s bloody
freezing, but she said, look at Amber, she just wears them over jeans...’

The guard
stepped out of their way as they passed, but his gaze lingered on them. Amber
heard his footsteps echoing up the street behind him. A gust of wind lifted the
hem of her skirt again, she held it down with her free hand.

The footsteps behind them paused
for a moment, and then they started again. More purposeful, quicker, coming
closer.

Josie kept up her relentless
chatter until Amber’s head swam. She could feel the tension running through
Josie’s arms, heard the strain in her voice as she struggled to keep her voice
light and carefree. Amber risked a glance behind, but Josie pulled her on.

‘Girls,’
the guard’s voice was young. It didn’t have the heaviness of authority behind
it, but it was enough to make them both flinch. Josie swore under her breath.
‘Turn around.’

They
glanced at each other. For a split second the crazy idea of running entered
Amber’s mind, but it disappeared again almost at once. That was suicide. Josie
took a deep breath and turned round.

‘Yes?’ she
asked pleasantly.

The guard
struck her, sending her staggering back, releasing Amber as she did so. Amber
let out a cry of shock and moved towards her but the guard shook his head,
hefting the rifle slightly. Amber stepped back, stared at her scuffed trainers.

‘Recognise
this?’ the guard asked.

Amber
lifted her gaze a little. He held out his hand and uncurled his fingers to
reveal a small golden badge resting on his palm.

Amber felt her blood turn cold.
She stared at the badge. Stared and stared. Her hand strayed down to the hem of
her skirt. She wore it pinned to the inside.

It was no longer there.

No, because it was in the palm of
the guard who stood in front of her.

She turned wordlessly to Josie
whose face was pale apart from the red smack mark.

The guard
moved closer.

‘Recognise
it?’ he repeated, his voice lined with fury.

Josie found
her voice.

‘We’re for
it now,’ she whispered at Amber. ‘We’re going to have to kill him.’